You don't need to be powerful to live but you need to understand power to survive.
What if I tell you someone right now is thinking very hard about how to make your life as miserable as possible. That would be pretty sad right? That would be horrible. How can someone do that to you? You are a very special snowflake. Nobody should harm you. Awww
Yes, that would be pretty sad and fortunately, no one is is really that obsessed about making you miserable unless someone has a grudge on you. But, someone out there and some people out there are thinking about making power moves which will indirectly affect your way of life.
There are psychopaths and sociopaths plotting their next moves and whether you like it or not, you will be affected to some degree.
It doesn't matter who you are. Someone is working against you. You could be Jeff Bezos or you could be that dirty beggar at the road; it doesn't matter. But you're more miserable if you're Jeff.
If you're still reading, congratulations. I don't know about you but I'll just lay out some ideas and resources where you can extract some valuable lessons to help protect yourself from the power hungry animals of this world.
Ask Yourself:
- Who is working against you?
- Is your neighbor working against you?
- Is the government working against you? Are they doing their duties and really serving you?
- Is your boss a psychopath or a sociopath? You're not sure? He/she probably is. lol
- Which of your colleagues are too friendly? Are they plotting against you?
- Do you even trust your judgement when it comes to human affairs?
If you're rich, maybe you don't really care about what I'm saying and even find this negatively amusing. But, how sure are you that you'll still be rich in 48 hours?
If you've been chasing money all this time, it's high time for you to also chase some kind of power. Build your power infrastructure for protection but be careful not to corrupt yourself. You don't want to be the villain but you don't want to be the lame victim as well. Instead, it is way much better for you to be like John Silver. In the TV series Black Sails, he is a very strategic and tactical character. You should watch that show and learn how he deals with the power players around him.
When it comes to imposing your will to the people around you, it is always a better move to be using positive reinforcement tactics like praising, smiling, or giving rewards everytime they do something favorable to you.
Examples of rewards:
- Impersonal reward: ex. relates to promises of promotions, money and rewards from various social areas
- Personal reward: relates to the reward of receiving approval from a desired person and building relationships with romantic partners
Only use negative reinforcement tactics when necessary.
Some examples of negative reinforcement tactics:
- pyschological punishment
- nagging
- silent treatment
- swearing
- threats
- guilt trips
- traumatic tactics
- verbal abuse
- explosive anger
Negative reinforcement tactics are the methods to your madness. I'm not encouraging you to be doing these tactics. But beware, these tactics could be what the power hungry monsters around you are using against you.
They can also coerce you using the following methods:
- Threat of force: physical, social, emotional, political, or economic
- Impersonal coercion: relates a person’s belief that influencing agent has the real power to physically threaten, impose a monetary fine, or dismiss an employee
- Personal coercion: relates to a threat of rejection or the possibility of disapproval from a person whom is highly valued. Demonstrations of harm are often used to illustrate what will happen if compliance is not gained.
You should also be watchful for people who are using manipulation tactics to get what they want. Manipulation tactics like planting seeds of doubt in your mind, bringing your defenses down, or playing on your insecurities might have been acted upon you in the past by actors who wanted to achieve something good or bad. I think most people these days can smell bullshit like these but if you stumble upon a cunning sociopath, you might not even notice their manipulations at all. Littlefinger in Game of Thrones is a great example of a master manipulator.
Here are other methods that power-hungry animals utilize to achieve what they want:
- project authority
- influence people’s behavior
- control people’s behavior
- apply force
- threaten force
- use arguments
- constrain
- enable
Here's a list of good movies / series to watch which features characters that navigate a world full of manipulation and power-hungry old kids:
- Show Me a Hero
- The Good Wife
- The Good Fight
- The Americans
- BattleStar Galactica
- Game of Thrones
- Scandal
- No
- Vikings
- Band of Brothers
- Covert Affairs
- StrikeBack
- The Pacific
- Veep
- Narcos
- Rome
- Boss
- The Thick of It
- House of Cards
- Baron Noir
- Power
- American Odyssey
- Tyrant
- Race for the White House
- Black Sails
- Prison Break
- Survivor
- The Walking Dead
- Fear The Walking Dead
- The Tudors
- The Borgias
- Borgia
- Patton 360
- Harper’s Island
- Game Change
- The Iron Lady
- The Ides of March
- The West Wing
- The Universe
- Mining Shows
- Designated Survivor
- Borgen
- Madam Secretary
- The NewsRoom
- Daily Politics
- Political Animals
- Marseille
- Spin
- The Ozarks
- Blue Eyes
- Commander in Chief
- Secret State
- Party Animals
Enjoy and goodluck.